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Laura Keeble: Urban Interventions

Gestalten’s latest release, “Urban Interventions” is really just a nice way of saying pranks. Artsy pranks, in this case. Simple, clever, public attention-getters like a banner on the side of a building that reads: The secret of happiness is t- before the rest is torn off. Like all good art there’s something deeper at work, but the important thing about these pieces is that they’re fun and playful, like the giant wad of gum stretched out between two buildings.

One of the artists featured is Laura Keeble, who gained notoriety in 2007 with her spoof of Damien Hirst’s platinum and diamond-encrusted skull, “For the Love of God.” She made her own version of the skull with Swarovski crystals and left it in a glass case on a pile of trash outside the White Cube Gallery in Londond as they were taking down Hirst’s show. Keeble, who is actually a fan of Hirst, pulled the stunt to see the contrast between the experience of “standing in a room with an object worth $100 million and the security and theatricals of it all” versus the experience of viewing the same objet d’art minus the hype.

“Urban Inventions” features “Idol Worship,” another 2007 piece in which Keebler created headstones with the Nike swoosh, the McDonald’s arches and the Chanel logo and placed them in a cemetery where anyone on their way to visiting a grave could stumble upon them. Watch an interview with the artist.